Convince Me to Get City Living

Kandy

I'm pretty convinced already, and I have leftover birthday money, but... I'm waiting until Saturday, and I'm afraid by then the want to get it will have worn off. I got this urge to get it when I created a new household, and realized they needed to live in a city-they're not suburb people. But I want some other reasons to want it besides this one household. Can you give me some?

DeservedCriticism

and I'm afraid by then the want to get it will have worn off.

If that's your fear and if you need convincing at all, it's probably not worth getting at all. I skipped it, it just looks bad to me. Obnoxious neighbors making noise and constantly visiting, lackluster festivals, aaaaaaaaaaaand that's it. Not sure how it's supposed to be entertaining.

MrMonty96

To be honest, City Living isn't as good as it looks. After the festivals, (some of which aren't even good) there's only basketball and karaoke left as main features (excluding apartments). The build mode objects are great but half of them are world objects, not really applicable on normal lots. However the Cas is amazing but again, half of them aren't really that useful because of the lack of plain swatches. Soo...

DeKay

Wow, we're doing such a bad job at trying to convince you, Kandy.

MissCherie

Honestly? No.

I just got it (as a gift, I would have never bought it), and you are not missing out on much, the festivals are boring, it's just stuff you can do in the base game already, the Geek-con is pretty much playing video games, the spice festival is... well eating food, the romance festival is the most boring, you just go there and flirt, I've seen a LOT of people complain cause sims will flirt with everyone even if they are in a relationship or married (and then they get mad), so yea, then there's the flea market which is the only one that I though looked nice, but then after once or twice it's getting old cause there's not much, 2-3 lamps and 2 couches, and well 🐸🐸🐸🐸 I don't even remember the other festival, lol that show how boring those are.

My sims keep getting whims related to apartment living even though they are not living in apartments.

Honestly the only thing I enjoy from CL is the singing skill, which that alone doesn't worth 40$ for sure.

So I would say since you don't seem to want it that much, I would wait if I was you, either wait for a sale (don't worry it happen pretty much every 2 weeks), maybe watch let's play focused on CL and decide if really you want it or not.

Gonedalf

I really like the feel of living in an apartment with my Sims. I like paying rent vs paying house bills, I think it adds a little extra challenge where I want it. I love the apartments that come with the expansion, and overall I just really like the vibe of being in the city. I've also had a lot of fun with the three included careers. I like how you have the option to work at home or go to work. I thought they built nicely on Get to Work with that, even if I wish there were more active careers.

I love the views from the apartment windows.

I LOVE the singing skill. LOVE it. I haven't done much with basketball, but I use the singing objects a ton.

I also LOVE the park that comes with the city. It's the perfect venue for weddings, and I love the way that it's set up. I do all my weddings there now. I also really, really, love the art gallery and the gym.

I really like the podium in uptown for leveling up my charisma. I enjoy using that a lot more than mirrors now.

I also really love the food stands and that my Sims can just walk outside their apartment and find something delicious if they don't feel like cooking.

The CAS additions included a lot of multi-cultural looking stuff, which I love. I'm not really a builder, I'm more of a gameplay person, but I like a lot of the build/buy items.

Last, but certainly not least, PUFFERFISH. AHHHH. This might be my most favorite thing ever when I want to play evil. Seriously, this game did not have enough deaths, and the pufferfish dish is perfect for when I A. Want to throw the WORST birthday party/wedding/dinner party of all time. (Just make a dish of pufferfish, leave it on a table and count how many out of your fifteen guests die throughout the evening.) B. Want to play a Black Widow type Sim. C. Want to quickly and efficiently get rid of an annoying NPC without going into household management. The options are pretty endless with the pufferfish.

I do not feel like it's worth $40. But I got mine for $25 and felt like it was worth it.

BlueOvale

Are you a city person? It really helps to feel immersed when you have things in common with your sims. And the neighborhoods are way more lively. You can go outside your dwelling and always find lots of interesting sims. Your neighbors even come to you. And let's not forget they added the bubble blower! That alone was worth ten bucks.

Renamed2002180839

If you can wait it may go on sale in February around the Sims Anniversary on Origin, maybe.

Anyway, buy it short term for the diversions like the Festivals and stuff (Keyboards, basketball, Karaoke, Bubble Blower CAS ect.) like normal.

Buy it long term for the expansiveness it adds to your general sim day by allowing you to enter the plazas outside your apartment and engage to routine activities like getting something to eat for dinner, maybe seeing some sims perform or even work at the three new blended career options Politics/ Critic/ Writer-Blogger. There's also a new table and panel that allow you to sell your paintings and collectibles in the plaza and during fleas markets OR really just anywhere, allowing a more realistic form of earning money from those hobbyist careers. Enough can't be said for the freeing nature of this new set up, including the ability to visit your neighbors as well without a loading screen. Now, it's not perfect, your neighbors will just come out into the hall and hangout or join you to go to your place BUT it's far better then the current set up where you have to go through a loading screen at their house or call them on the phone from their front porch. Your neighbors will also cause various problems and visit you for various reasons. You'll see them getting mail, taking out the garbage and coming and going from the hall. That's another big change considering to date it's hard to tell you even have neighbors in say Willow Creek.

The surrounding city environment is dynamic, changing and the best realization of an urban environment in the sim's to date. It feels like a large sprawling city and you can see the different neighborhoods from one another, especially in elevated Uptown. You don't just cut off from all the others as is the case in Oasis or Willow Creek. It's great to look out your window and see the mass transit train roll through or see the festival setting up, even when you are bored with going it's cool to just see the activity. It's got a great natural city rhythm with the way and number and type of people who move through the area at a given time of day. The city has been designed in a multi-cultural flow but also a time based flow as well. You can see the progression of the city's history as you move through it's neighborhoods from a hundred and twnety years ago to seventy years ago to today to the future. It's a clever set up.

Anyway, I did a rolling review of the pack on the forums if you'd like to scan through it with some pictures and stuff, located here: http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/903842/rolling-review-and-thoughts-on-cl-vg-new-season-end-video-greeting-from-reg-and-max/p1

EDIT: If you read through my review stuff above keep in mind the early problems with "lag" that I mention were fixed in a patch.

TiaDog

Not really good, pass it. Wait for the next expansion pack. For me the only good think is basketball.

EnkiSchmidt

Got it on sale, too, would only suggest paying full price of you value that uge city backdrop and the general city "feeling" a lot.

My highly subjective pros:
- Great if you like freeing the camera with the tab key and take screenshots
- The food carts may substitute a restaurant
- 20+ new recipes
- Two new collections (snowglobes and posters)
- Interesting semi-active careers (politics, social media)
- Wonderful new clothes
- More lot traits